Low-cost airline Ryanair has lost the latest round in its legal battle to avoid paying for hotels, meals and drinks to passengers who were affected by delays due to the Icelandic volcano erupting in 2010.

The European Court of Justice's advocate general Yves Bot said that airlines were obliged to pay the costs incurred by its passengers whose flights were disrupted by 'extraordinary circumstances' like the volcano.

Ryanair's argument was that the closure of airspace from the Eyjafjallajökull volcano erupting was so extraordinary that the rules shouldn't apply.

The advocate general said: 'In everyday language, the term 'extraordinary circumstances' refers to all circumstances over which the air carrier has no control: an event which is not inherent in the normal exercise of the activity of the air carrier concerned and is beyond the actual control of that carrier on account of its nature or origin.

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